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High schools in Ottawa and the Valley didn’t reach the academic peak or become basement dwellers, according to the Fraser Institute’s Secondary Schools report card.

But the overall grades were an improvement on the think-tank’s elementary schools report card released in late March.

The top school across the region was St. Michael Catholic High School in Kemptville — about 40 km south of Ottawa — which reached a 9.6 out of 10.

The school has also shown consistent success over the past five years.

“There’s no increase or decrease (over time). They’re maintaining very high averages,” said Michael Thomas, associate director of the Fraser Institute.

“They’re doing a terrific job keeping their students up to speed.”

The grading method is similar to the elementary schools report card, which uses Grade 3 and 6 provincial testing results. Fraser’s high school report uses Grade 9 math testing and the Grade 10 literacy test, analyzing grades from the applied and academic math testing and identifying how many students pass or fail the literacy test on their first try.

Valuable information

The high school information is less robust, according to Thomas, but the report card is still very valuable because it compares schools across the province.

St. Michael was tops in the region because it was far better than the provincial average with a 97% pass rate on the literacy test. In math, only 3.5% of the school’s tests were below the provincial standard, compared to a provincial average of 27%.

The Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario refused to comment on the great results. They said they “don’t subscribe to the philosophy that ranking schools leads to improved students achievement.”

But the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board — featuring the top two high schools in Ottawa — did commend creative math lessons for matching 9.1 grades given to both West Carleton Secondary School and Colonel By Secondary School.

“We’re really proud of both those schools,” said director of education Barrie Hammond.

“I know they’ve worked very hard with some innovative instructional practices around their Grade 9 mathematics program, particularly the applied, and they’ve seen great success there,” he added.

Top and bottom

The public board, with 26 high schools, including the Adult High School and five secondary alternate schools, peaked at both the top and bottom in Ottawa.

Hammond said the board has invested more time and resources into Ridgemont High School, which hit only 4.3 out of 10. But he said in the end, the board doesn’t believe in ranking schools.

Thomas admitted Ontario is tougher to rate than, for example, B.C., which boasts the most thorough report card thanks to provincial testing from Grade 10 to 12.